Birthday cupcakes

Little Ricicle is one year old. It’s amazing how quickly a year has passed, but it also seems like a very, very long time since it was just me and Mr Rice. We wouldn’t have it any other way of course.

I suppose most parents go overboard when it comes to first birthday parties, and we were the same. It fell to me to make the cake, and my celebration cake of choice at the moment is the cupcake, so that’s the way I went.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC and put 16 bun cases into a muffin or bun tin. Then beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a food mixer until well combined, followed by the sifted flour and beat again until it’s all smooth. Then add the milk 1 tbsp at a time, with the mixer on, until the mixture is soft but not runny.

Get two teaspoons and get a heaped spoonful of the mixture on one, and carefully push it off the spoon and into the bun cases with the other until all the bun cases are equally filled. Make sure they are no more than half full or they will overflow when they cook.

Cook the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes until the tops are golden brown and then let them cool fully on a wire cooling tray before you ice them.

To make the butter cream, just beat together the butter and the icing sugar until nice and smooth. Then you can smooth it or pipe it onto the cupcakes however you like, and of course you can add a little colour and other accoutrements too to give them the perfect finish!